


Goodbye love

by Eponine_Thenardibae



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, F/M, This is the saddest thing I've ever written, death tw, descriptions of blood and injury tw, guns tw, parental abuse mention tw, unsafe binding tw
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-10
Updated: 2016-08-10
Packaged: 2018-08-07 23:50:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7734646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eponine_Thenardibae/pseuds/Eponine_Thenardibae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Montparnasse had followed Eponine to the barricade?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Goodbye love

Eponine looked down at herself and realized that in her rags she would be recognisable in seconds. Besides, she might be sent away from the barricade by Marius or his overly concerned blonde friend who seemed to hate if they knew it was her and that was certainly not part of her plan. She needed to look like someone else. She needed to look like a man. She considered stealing clothes from her father but they wouldn’t have fit her and besides, she hadn’t been home since her little stunt at rue plumet and despite what she was expecting at the barricade she would rather not turn up already black and blue, especially if that would delay her at all.

So she thought through the other people she knew who would own clothing of the masculine variety. She was so skinny at this point from not eating that she even considered her brother, but she knew he probably had but one outfit and would certainly question why she wanted it. This was all before she realized that even with her size there was zero chance she would get into them and Marius wasn’t an option since it was him she was mostly trying to hide from. 

That is when the little lightbulb lit itself above her head. She had never met anyone with more clothes than Montparnasse. She had practically memorized his schedule at this point with the amount of time they spent together and she knew he probably wouldn’t be at home at this time of the day. What he was away doing she wasn’t sure she wanted to know but it was her perfect opportunity. 

She ran as fast as she could, with her head down so no one would recognize her as she sped towards his apartment faster than a lightning bolt. She probably could have ran there with her eyes closed since she had traveled that route so many times. She even considered just asking Montparnasse for the clothes since she knew he would probably enjoy dressing her up on account of the fact he tended to make slightly snarky comments about her appearance. However, she knew she would have nowhere to turn if he didn’t give her the clothes and he would probably question her when she tried leaving in them. 

She picked his lock with very minimal effort and slipped inside. It wasn’t a big apartment at all, in fact it was barely more than one room, so it didn’t take her long to locate the chest of drawers that contained all of his clothes. (Which were all impeccably folded) 

Firstly, she stoles some bandages that she had seen in his room a million times times over. She couldn’t exactly expect her family to help her after a fight seeing as the majority of the time it was them she had been doing the fighting with and when it wasn’t, they couldn’t care less no matter how many cuts and bruises were on her body. Montparnasse was also prone to fighting, and she’d seen them use the bandages on themselves plenty of times. 

She took away the baggy chemise that she had been using as a way to cover the top half of her body and started wrapping the bandages around her chest tightly until she felt completely flat. She stood to look at herself sideways in the mirror and breathed in sharply. She could feel her breath being pretty restricted, but by this point, she didn’t really care. She was in that dangerous frame of mind, where achieving her goal was the only thing she wanted. She grabbed some random trousers and the first shirt she saw, throwing her own clothing haphazardly onto the floorboards as she changed. Of course she didn’t look as good as Montparnasse - but it was definitely passable that she could be one of the students. 

She found a jacket that she had been admiring for months but as she had just finished putting it on, she heard the door open and she froze. Her eyes shot straight towards the owner of the apartment whose clothes she was standing in and her heart rate shot up. She saw a flash of silver as he drew out his knife but once he saw who it was he put it away immediately., breathing a slight sigh of relief “Eponine?” He looked her up and down. “What are you doing?” 

“...Nothing.” She said very unconvincingly, as she shuffled awkwardly and started cursing herself silently for spending so long on admiring her handywork in the mirror instead of checking only quickly before grabbing the rest of the clothes. 

“Is that my suit jacket?” Asked Montparnasse in apparent confusion, leaning against the wall slightly - possibly in an attempt to look cool as was usually the case. 

“It’s cold out.” It wasn’t really the truth, since it was June so the weather was pretty agreeable but she didn’t tend to wear enough clothing and she complained bitterly about being cold most of the time which brought her to the conclusion it would be the easiest thing to try and say that he wouldn’t hate her for. 

“You could’ve asked.” He rolled his eyes and took off the top hat he seemed to be permanently wearing as he strolled over towards her. “Anyway, that jacket is far too expensive.” Eponine took mild offense that he wouldn’t allow her to wear one of his better jackets - but it didn’t seem a good time to bring this up. “Give it here. I’ll find you something warmer.” 

Montparnasse extended an arm towards her to take the jacket. She took it off reluctantly and passed it over to them. She didn’t really have the time for him to carefully inspect every single jacket he owned - which she knew he would - so she had to make an excuse. “Uh, nevermind it’s fine.” She said quickly. “I’m sorry I have to rush.” 

This earned her a slightly suspicious look from Montparnasse but pulling up Eponine about anything (even if you were right) was usually an awful idea usually turned to yelling and falling out - and they had had more than enough of that recently. “Goodbye then.” She turned to walk away as she spoke, but as she did, something strange caught Montparnasse’s eye. “Wait.” He said as he reached out and gently held onto her arm, causing her to turn and face him.

“What?” She snapped slightly. She didn’t want to be there any longer, especially if Montparnasse started piecing things together and she knew he probably wouldn’t let her go to that barricade even if it killed him to stop her. 

“Are you wearing bandages?” He asked, leaning forward ever so slightly to identify the light shadow that was only a little bit visible underneath the shirt she’d stolen, and she crossed her arm over her front and glared at Montparnasse, backing away from their close range of view while they folded the jacket that they’d taken off of her. 

“No.” She said. Snapping a little again. “Look, I really have to go.” She whined, looking towards the door - but she had to have the last word, and Montparnasse had more to say. 

“Eponine. What is going on?” Montparnasse said sounding ever so slightly sterner then they had before, yet still mostly just full of concern in a way that started to make Eponine feel a little bit guilty. “Tell me.” 

“Since when do you care?” This really wasn’t the time to be picking a fight - but she was Eponine Thenardier and she couldn’t always stop herself picking a fight. “It’s none of your business, but if you’re desperate to know, I need to help Marius with something.” She said - sounding as casual as she possibly could.

“And you need my jacket for that?” Responded Montparnasse, looking genuinely more baffled by the second but still rolling his eyes at the mention of Marius. (A habit they had picked up the very first time Eponine had talked about him)

“I already said - it’s cold.” She nodded her head as if to signify she was out of the conversation and she turned to leave again.  
“Hold on.”  
She turned back again with an accentuated sigh, but turned back nevertheless. After a few seconds of searching while she studied him carefully he produced a jacket that was clearly too small for him - but still rather pretty. “Here.” He held it towards her and she took it. She put it on and it fit her perfectly. “It’ll protect you from the wind a bit more than that scrap of cloth.” 

“Thanks.” She only half smiled. “I’ll see you later, yeah?” She said. Biting her lip slightly to stop herself from crying. There wasn’t much she would miss about this godforsaken city but Montparnasse was going to be one of them.

“Yes. Until then.” She could have had the last word. She could have said ‘Ok’ or ‘Seeya’ or ‘Alright’ but she didn’t. For the first time in her life, she let Montparnasse have the last word because she was worried that if she didn’t then she would start crying and now was not the time to cry. 

Montparnasse would have left it at that if it was not for the fact that while one of her arms was raised to put on the jacket, they had seen the unmistakable shape of the bandages around her torso. She had never been shy of telling him when she was hurt, so if it was an injury there was no way she would get defensive about it like she had. Montparnasse must have lasted approximately thirty-seven seconds before putting his hat back on and following her out. 

She wasn’t too hard to track, and although she was moving swiftly, he was much swifter. It didn’t take them all that long to reach the cafe musain. It was the place where Marius and his silly student friends were always talking about how much they hated society. At least today it looked like they were actually going to do something about it. 

Montparnasse did what they did best and they hid in the shadows. They watched as Eponine carefully helped stack some things to form a barricade and spend most of her time approaching Marius who mostly seemed to ignore the fact she was even there. What ever was going on was a big deal and it made Montparnasse sulk to know she wouldn’t tell about whatever it was.

Suddenly it got a heck of a lot more serious. Montparnasse had only been staring at the scene for about five minutes after the barricade was completed before there were national guardsmen everywhere, and they were relentlessly shooting towards the barricade. The structure had been up hardly any time at all and it was already practically a battle zone. The oblivious Marius Pontmercy was reloading his bayonet when a gun pointed towards him. Straight away, Eponine dashed towards the gun to block it and Montparnasse’s eyes widened. 

He was faster than her and he ran forwards, shoving her hard and knocking her out of the path of the gun barrel - and instead running into it himself. There was a sharp pain that started in their stomach but seemed to travel all the way through his body as they fell to the ground, closely followed by a very upset looking Eponine. 

“Mont! What are you doing?” She hissed, she sounded mostly more worried than angry, but still pretty livid at him for putting himself in danger. “Oh fuck, you’re bleeding.” She took the jacket off that he had given her only about twenty minutes before and she pressed it to his wound to do her best to stop the bleeding, but it took very little effect and all it did was make the dark jacket even darker. 

“I followed you - oh christ.” He winced, looking down at the wound as Eponine put as much pressure on it as she could without hurting him too much.  
“Why on gods earth would you do that?”  
“You were getting yourself into trouble.”  
He winced, looking down at the wound as Eponine looked around, frantically shouting for someone - anyone - to help them. This only earned them looks of pity, as no one moved from their position. She looked down again at Montparnasse and they started shaking slightly, with filled her with even more panic. “Oh god, ummm.” She looked desperately in her brain for some sort of way to help and she couldn’t think of any to save her own life, let alone his. “You’re gonna be fine! It only grazed you a little right?” She said as if she hadn’t just seen a bullet enter his stomach.

He reached for her hand she took it without hesitation, sensing he was about to speak. “I don’t think so ‘ponine.” 

“No, you’re going to be fine!” She exclaimed harshly as if it was a scream of pain. She looked down at Montparnasse and saw as their face started to get paler by the second and realized that for once, it wasn’t about her anymore. 

He shook his head and looked up to her, seeming somehow smaller. “Can you stay with me?” He actually sounded like himself for once. He wasn’t putting on a voice to sound cool or snobby, he just sounded like Montparnasse. He sounded just like her darling Montparnasse. 

“I’ll stay with you for the rest of time,” Eponine projected fiercely, “Because you’re gonna be ok!” She was trying to convince herself as much as she was them, but she could feel the tears starting to run down her face. He reached towards her and she moved quickly, pulling him closer to her and onto her lap so that she could hold him as closely as possible. Her leg was starting to go dead but she didn’t care- at this moment, she was hoping her entire being would go dead. 

“We’ll live together one day. That will be good. I’ll get you away from your parents.” The second he started talking about the future - their future - she started to feel herself slowly breaking down inside. Montparnasse didn’t usually speak this way and she knew for him to be talking that was was a sign that she was losing him. She was losing him, she was losing her chance to be away from her parents, her chance to have a real life. Possibly even her chance to have a family. She could almost see them slip away as easily as the blood drained from Montparnasse’s face.

There was a moment of deafening silence before he spoke again. “I’m scared, Ep.” He said, simply.  
“There’s nothing to be scared of.” She whispered in the rarely seen motherly tone that was usually reserved for her sister when their parents were being especially terrible. “I’m here.”  
“You’ll leave this place.” She couldn’t help but laugh a little in her head. He was still bossing her about, even with a bullet wound. “Please, promise me.”  
“I will, I promise, because I’m going with you.” She made sure that never promised she would go without him.

At that moment, he coughed violently, and splattered blood all over the both of them. Eponine cringed in disgust and fear as she wiped some of the blood onto her trousers. She had given up on putting pressure on the wound and blood was slowly seeping into her lap while the now ruined jacket lay slumped against her stomach. As much as they wanted to pretend, neither of them were stupid.  
“You can have my things.I keep money inside my mattress, and you can sell my clothes if you want.” Even though the tears, Eponine knew she was being bestowed the highest honor. Montparnasse really was a materialistic bastard and she only ever thought of him as loving one thing and that was his possessions. Until that day, she had not been completely aware there was something else he loved just as passionately. 

“No, you need those.” She said matter-of-factly. Almost childlike in her premature grief,shaking her head as if it was not even up for discussion, even though by this point he was practically already gone. “Stop being so dramatic.” 

He reached up and lightly held her cheek in the palm of his hand. Montparnasse could feel the tears find their way from her eyes towards his hand. He could also hear her piercing sobs making their way to his ears. “It’s in my nature.” Suddenly, their shaking stopped and they struggled to keep their eyes open, only just managing it as their hand dropped from her face, leaving a small trace of blood.

“Come on, stop scaring me, please.” Her words were punctuated by sobs and sharp gasps for breaths through the uncontrollable weeping. 

“Eponine...I think I was a little bit in love with you.” And he closed his eyes. 

She screamed. She had nothing to do but scream. She screamed so loudly, and with so much force that she thought her throat would break while the walls around her crumbled. It could have been easily thought that that one scream would have been enough to tear down france, but it just turned into another sob. One of many. Her sobbing was loud. Her face was screwed up and contorted as she felt nothing but indescribable, blinding pain.

Most of the students of the barricade had no idea who she was, and certainly had no idea who Montparnasse was, yet the sound she made could make even the weeds that snakes their way through the cobblestones personally feel her pure anguish. For ten minutes that was all that there was. Marius tried to rest his hand on her shoulder, and she only violently shrugged him off. She was so covered in blood from holding Montparnasse close, that it would have been convincing if she has said it was her who had been shot. 

After ten minutes, she stopped. It took a minute of sniffling and shaky breaths, but she stopped, and when she did, several students approached and lifted Montparnasse away from her, and she remained on the ground, holding his hand until he was out of reach. They placed him inside the cafe and after a while, they had to start talking amongst themselves about the next attack, but she didn’t move. She didn’t speak. She didn’t cry. She barely even breathed. 

Within a few minutes, it was back to normal. This didn’t count Eponine. Eponine was sat in the same place, staring at the wall and tracing the blood stain on the ground with her fingers. She had blocked everything out, until at least, she heard a gunshot. She stood up steadily, and without feeling anything, she climbed the barricade. She ignored the shouts telling her to get down. Not even the calls from Marius could stop her now.

When she reached the top, she just sat down. She was sat there for the grand total of five seconds before she felt the unbearable sting of a bullet in her chest. She fell backwards and didn’t try to stop herself. Boys rushed towards her, ready to break her fall, but she was dead before she even hit the ground.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so sorry.
> 
> I have no excuses.


End file.
